dBel84

all the best ..dB

For many of us "orthoheads" the initial discovery of orthos was a "poorman's" route to the stat fiefdom. There are similarities but there are also differences which have to be acknowledged. The stat membrane is free of the limitations of requiring a voice coil and as such can be significantly thinner and lighter. This translates to audible differences in presentation. Orhto's are relatively free of amplification restrictions. I love the fact that I can plug my headphones directly into my iRiver DAP and enjoy the sound it produces while scaling accordingly with equipment that I add to the front end. I am no stat guru and I am not sure that I ever will be. I spent a fair amount of time with the O2 powered by the T1, I have also spent time listening to the lambdas and Koss's ESP950. They are all great sounding headphones. I still preferred the orthodynamics I had at my disposal, not necessarily because I thought that they were technically better but they offered me what I wanted to hear and I could tune them to suite my tastes specifically. I love to tiker and there is something rewarding in taking a sub $100 headphone and changing it to sound better than most off the shelf headphones. Stats fall into this category too as I am sure Smeggy and Birgir can atest too. I defferred tuning headpones for others for the longest time as it is a painstakingly personal process and there is no gaurentee that others will hear what it is that I hear. I know at least 2 folk who have similar hearing to mine. The offering from Audez'e represents a modern take on this old technoilogy and I happen to think they have the approach right. I don't believe in perfect as it is subjective and one man's perfect is far from anothers'. It does offer most everything that Wualta had been striving to achieve with his ortho thread - modern production ortho with characteristic ortho sound. Fostex never gave up on theirs and have been producing an ortho range all along. Problem is that they do not offer the same full sound without a little modification. Ideally, one of the modern manufacturers will produce a low cost ortho ( much like the grado SR60) that will allow anyone being introduced to this hobby to sample this planar technology. It won't be to everyone's tastes , and thus the hobby continues. (along with all the bickering that unite us and encourage the amiable enjoyment of distilled beverages ) ..dB

He did and hence the replacement This is allowed , the most important thing is to be honest with yourself - if you do not like what you hear, move on, this is what the journey is about. ( and considering the demand, you will not be out of pocket by the exercise ) ..dB

I have the EVO too, love it. Not sure how I functioned without it before as it just seems to streamline my life so much. I have a few work specific apps but then a few useful ones I have found. I never did download Tasker but that is one I need to look into. I use the advanced app killer a lot, color note is a yellow sticky app , I loaded doubletwist but tend not to use the phone for music at the moment, google goggles is a fun app, I kid myself that I play guitar and have gStrings which is a tuner app, also kid myself that I cycle and have iMapMyRide ( which is cool if you cycle ), quickoffice is good for most documents but not with spreadsheets, photoshop express as an image manipulator , ringdroid allows you to create your own ringtones from any mp3, I use skyfire as a browser..dB

quite timely coffee shortage ..dB

I am a coffee drinker - a little obsessive at times but I wanted to second MPI's voice of reason. Not necessarily kill the habit altogether but if you substitute coffee for soda you may end up drinking a dozen mugs a day and that is not going to be good for your health. Personal story: My turning point came when I had run out of coffee beans and refused to pick up the local supermarket smack, by the end of the day I had serious withdrawal ( thumping head, puking - not pretty ) , I weaned myself to 2 cups a day ( from 10+ ). I never thought I was dependent on the stuff and used it as the primary source of liquid, never had palpitations , hypertension or other known side effects so that was a big wake up call. OK; MD hat off, if you are going to drink coffee, make sure it is enjoyable and in all honesty the best coffee is small volume , steam generated aka espresso/expresso ( depending where you come from ) , if it is well made it is not bitter but rather a smooth drink that is both creamy and rich. You can even top it with 10ml of steamed milk - machiata if you prefer a little dairy. ( I dislike Americana but only because it is akin to adding water to a good single malt ) My poison is a dark roasted bean which again if done correctly is not bitter but can be. Generally the lighter roasts are not as strong but can easily leave a bitter aftertaste and be less enjoyable than the darker roasts. The true Blue Mountain beans are smooth, but also one of the most expensive beans out there. Trader Joe's Blue Bay is a consistent blend I enjoy. enough waffling, time for my morning cup ..dB

pics would be cool ..dB

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. I have been most fortunate to see the LCD2 driver and it is far from crude - in fact it is more advanced than any vintage ortho I have seen ( and I have seen a couple ) , on top of that it incorporates a few tricks which are damned impressive to enable it to have additional extention. The traces are very linear ( akin to those of old ) fine and the pattern covers a substantial portion of the membrane. It sounds the way it does because it was manufactured to do just that. I don't know about that later HE series but the HE5 was a shock to me when I first saw it - looked home etched with broad traces and very simple pattern. It sounded significantly better than it had any right to. ..dB edit = ID1 is a misnomer - it is the wharfedale isodynamic but yes, called ID1 by many and I have even succumbed to this nomenclature in the past. The reason being that the second release from wharfedale was called the ID2 and thus the first HP is referred to ID1 by some / many . edit 2 : and this may very well be your friends

The least sensitive of the vintage fare is the one that started it all = wharfedale isodynamics. These have a relatively thick diaphragm which is "crinkle cut", have a monstrous air gap of about 5-7mm and use what f look like a sheet of "fridge magnet" . Smeggy will be the first to tell you to plug them into the speaker terminals of your powerhouse amp, they do however sound good from my amp ( Alex's tube hybrid ) . My initial impression of the HE5 is that they had potential but needed to be damped - this would reduce their efiiciency out of necessity. I do not know what has gone into the HE6, I wil be getting to audition them. I am anticipating that my amp will drive them reasonably well based on the isodynamic's performance. I do have a few power maps at my disposal so I will at least have them as a back up. I posted these images on the original ortho thread = wharfedale isodynamic ..dB

One thing I do tend to do is educate myself when I am intrigued, I liked wiki's answer best - the whole concept of proof of alcohol seems to stem from rum and sailors - proof was the minimum dilution at which gunpowder would still ignite after being dowsed in said alcohol. This way the sailors knew they were getting the good stuff and it so happens to translate to a dilution of approximately 4:7 as 100 proof. This equates to about 57% as 100 proof. The rest is simple math to figure out exactly what proof or percentage your alcohol is if you know either value. now back to the real matter on hand - what is KG to buy ..dB

It was more tongue in cheek as I recall thinking "crazy Scots" when I first read about it. I am clearly clueless as to how proof and %etoh relate to one another ..dB

lol - I should have said that my '74 was given the JCW treatment with twin su's a mother of a primary gear etc - fun to drive , BUT it had nothing on this turbo 177HP bombshell..dB

been missing the experience since I sold my '74 cooper to move to the States .... yeah, my wife loves me ..dB

not strong enough but ... interesting enough? [url=http://www.gearfuse.com/tag/beer/]GEARFUSE

I know it is not a good reason to use the 5U4G over the 5AR4 but those coke bottle tubes are much prettier..dB

Sorry to hear about your amp Steve .... and your a good man Nate ..dB

and they fall like flies funny thing is I was listening to my Leak L3000 last night and was just floored by the abilities of these vintage orthos all over. Not up with the overall abilities of the LCD2 but not shabby at all ..dB

For the K1k , you are forgiven sir..dB

Meh K1K FOTM , does this mean I will have an LCD2 before you ) ..dB

loving this thing - picked one up for my better half and I ..dB

I had tried to resist exploring App Brain until I had the time but you know how that goes. I used the NAV function the other day - driving , couldn't find the place , spoke to the phone and it took me where I needed to be - boggles the mind. Blue Ant may well be a MUST I did check out double twist , it seems to have an issue with the EVO so I will watch their forum closely until they figure it out and then try it. Tapatalk also looks like a must have ..dB ps - no idea about the sound, have yet to plug a pair of headphones into it

My first step into the smartphone realm and after a little behind the scenes chatting to Brent, I picked up an EVO. It is probably wasted on me as I essentially needed a phone that could sync to exchange and read standard documents etc. Never having spent any time with anything like this , I am totally wowed by what it can do. It even gets a signal in the deadzone of my office - my flip that this replaces couldn't pick up a signal and sprint even sent me an airave which IT will not allow on their broadband. The browser is pretty quick but I have yet to learn how to navigate between windows and how to be less firm with my finger strokes as I keep making the phone do things that I didn't particularly want it to. I thought the size was going to be an issue and came very close to picking up the samsung galaxy but am very glad I stuck with my initial conviction and got the HTC. It can be personalized so much it is incredible and has a very cool feature of being able to set up various "platforms" for work and play. Simple to flip between them and gives the phone a total different level of functionality. I am not crazy about the stock music player so foobar had best hurry up and get their app released. The docking station looks pretty cool too. ..dB

One of the reasons that this particular 2.7 was not already in my grubby hands was that it sounded better to NoNoNoNoNoNo in some ways than his highly modded version. The bass was not as present but the realism with which the midrange was presented, was said to be pretty special. His intention had been to investigate the board when he had the time in order to better understand what had been done. Pity really , I would have been interested in this too. I never did get to do a head to head of my transdac and his 2.7 as I had done with the 2.6 playing redbook discs. ..dB

I will merely say that you are wrong in this instance. Saachi's situation is unrelated to anything audio and is the results of tragic life circumstance. The 2.7 was modded but not by him and he is not clear what electonic mods have been made ( does not appear to have had the usual cap changes etc but some of the circuitry appears to have been bypassed ) I know this because it was to be mine. NoNoNoNoNoNo was going to do a direct trade for my transdac ( which has had the crap modded out of it ) I encouraged him to rather sell the 2.7 to raise funds at it has more street cred than my transdac. He also asked for my ( and Alex's) permission to sell the respective Stacker's. I wish him all the best and hope that his current situation passes without leaving too many scars. ..dB

I have to say that, to my ears, the LCD2 produces the sound that I have been looking for in a headphone. Perfectly balanced, shockingly neutral / natural and were not uncomfortable for the time that I had them. ( I even liked the stock cable ) , I have not heard the HE6 but am hoping to have this opportunity through the loaner program that Fang/Aaron is setting up. I am honestly not biased against Head Direct's product , I just didn't like the imbalance of the HE5. I am however biased by driver technology and they are not equal. I have been privileged to have seen the LCD2 ( up close and personal as it were ) and it is just friggin amazing what Audez'e have done - it makes the SS100 looks like a tramp. The traces are tight and it has an ingenious "trick" which enables the driver to have 3mm excursion while still being tight. I believe that this is why it sounds like it does - dense traces with high power magnets and decent excursion enabling very fast response and the ability to move a big surface of air to rumble that bass. I have opened the HE5 and comparatively the engineering is akin to a beetle vs porsche. The glimpse I have had of the HE6 driver looked an awful lot like the HE5 , the gold plating may well have significant sonic benefit and I am open to giving them a fair chance. and now no more until I have actually heard a pair..dB